Please note our new postal address when sending
contributions to the legal fund:
121 5th Avenue, PMB #150
Brooklyn, New York 11217
About DDDB
Our coalition consists of 21 community organizations and
there are 51 community organizations formally
aligned in opposition to the Ratner plan.

DDDB is a volunteer-run organization. We have over 5,000
subscribers to our email newsletter, and 7,000 petition
signers. Over 800 volunteers have registered with DDDB
to form our various teams, task-forces and committees
and we have over 150 block captains. We have a 20 person
volunteer legal team of local lawyers supplementing our
retained attorneys.

We are funded entirely by individual donations from the community at large
and through various fundraising events we and supporters have organized.

"This ombudsman position provides an opportunity for me to draw
on all of my experiences in and out of government and is an exciting next step
forward in the State’s effort to increase the public’s connection to this important
and transformative project. I look forward to working with all stakeholders
to insure the community has access to current information and swift
responses to questions and concerns."

See, in mid-October, just two weeks before the grand opening of Newark's Prudential
Center arena, that city's police department mandated that at least two streets
adjacent to the new arena would be closed during events as a necessary precaution
against terrorist attacks. Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy told the Newark
Star-Ledger, "you can't construct an arena and put it right against a street in
a post 9/11 world. So we're playing catch-up and taking measures to make sure
it's safe."

The Newark arena is set back about 25 feet from its nearest abutting streets.
Forest City Ratner's arena would be set back only 20 feet, in most places, from
busy avenues. But unlike in Newark, the NYPD says that street closures will not
be necessary in Brooklyn; according to the NY
Times, the NYPD "found that the arena was safe and streets need
not be closed on game days."

So one of the first questions and concerns many have for Mr. Taylor is this: What
makes the Brooklyn arena's proximity to streets different from the Newark arena
that it will not require street closings?